Mary Mattie Lou Murphy

Mary Mattie Lou Snyder Murphy
Mom
Born November 15, 1923 in Ethridge, Lawrence County, Tennessee was the daughter of Ella Mae Baker Snyder and John Q. A. Snyder. She was the fourth of six children born to her mother, the second wife of her father. The family owned a farm in Ethridge. She moved to Louisville, KY at 18 and worked at a rope manufacturer. After the attack on Pearl Harbor she decided to move to Los Angeles to work in the War Industry. She arrived without employment but had met the wife of a man who worked for Douglas Aircraft who was traveling back to Los Angeles with her family. She told them what she was hoping for and he assisted her in getting a job at Douglas Aircraft where she worked as a riveter. There she would crawl inside the wings of SBD bombers and buck the rivets. Due to security reasons they were not allowed to ever see the final product and it was not until she was in her 60’s that she saw a fully completed dive bomber. After the war she was assigned to work a project where C47 cargo planes were converted to DC3’s; the planes would arrive shot-up and sometimes still bloody from attacks the planes had survived. She would assist in removing the damaged sheets of metal and replacing them with new sheets; then they would install rows of seats and overhead luggage racks.
It was also after the war she met the brother-in-law of one of her co-workers, a sailor and survivor of eight battles of the US Navy PTO, Calvin Lee Murphy. On September 17, 1946, she married Calvin and they had five children. Mary and her children moved to Gladewater in 1959 and was divorced in 1961.
She retired from K-Mart and was a server at Luby’s for many years. Mrs. Murphy will be greatly missed by many friends and family members.
Mary is survived by her sons, Donald Murphy and wife, Valerie, David Murphy and wife, Patricia, Calvin Murphy and wife, Linda; daughters, Linda Murphy, and Shirley Senay and husband, Jeff; her last surviving sibling, Leatha Snyder; as well as numerous grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren.
She is preceded in death by her parents and four siblings.
Visitation for Mrs. Mary Mattie Lou Murphy, 94, of Gilmer will be held 9:00 until 11:00 A.M., Tuesday, July 3, 2018 at Croley Funeral Home, TX. Private family burial will follow at Sunset Memorial Park in Gilmer, TX. Mrs. Murphy passed away Tuesday, June 26, 2018 in Frisco, TX.
Heartfelt thanks to Robin, Kelly, and Marley of Heart to Heart Hospice in Longview and Brittney, Bethany, Barbara, and Sandra of Heart to Heart Hospice in Carrollton.